“The Wizard of Oz has always been one of my favourite films,” chef Joel Alderdice tells Broadsheet from his Healesville restaurant Emerald City, named after the fantastical city in the classic 1939 film.

Originally hailing from the Healesville area, the chef cut his teeth at some of Melbourne’s best restaurants including Bar Liberty, where he worked as head chef, and Attica, where he staged for three months. But as the saying goes, “There’s no place like home”.

So in 2022, Alderdice returned to Healesville to step up as head chef at Tarrawarra Estate, where he apprenticed back in 2010. Now he’s fulfilling a life-long dream of opening a restaurant in his hometown.

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The location is discreet, hidden at the back of Cavanagh’s Whisky Bar & Alehouse, opened by Brendan and Kate Cavanagh in 2022. Draw back the velvet curtain and you’ll find a dining oasis.

“We wanted our Emerald City to be a hidden gem of Healesville,” Alderdice says.

In keeping with the cinematic inspiration, the diner has a theatrical feel. Seated at an Australian myrtle bar – “made from a very old tree from Tasmania” – facing the open kitchen, the guests are the audience and Alderdice is their wizard, wielding knives and tweezers as he navigates the small but well-equipped custom kitchen. Alderdice commissioned a custom 240-panel pendant light by Zakay Glass Creations to illuminate the space, which accommodates four guests per two-hour sitting.



Pendant light by Zakay Glass Creations. Photography: Hugh Davison

The menu changes daily and includes between 12 and 16 courses for $175 a head. It starts with a chef’s selection of snacks like thinly sliced apple topped with baked nashi, macadamia jam and daikon – Alderdice’s tribute to the Thai dish ma hor (an appetiser where a slice of fruit is topped with meat, typically pork, that translates to “galloping horses”).

“It’s the same profile in terms of how it looks and tastes but it’s definitely not Thai in flavour,” he says.

Small bites include tempura vegetables from Timbarra Farm and locally foraged mushrooms. There will also be “a lot of things off the hibachi” like pork jowl skewers or thinly cut Wagyu.

“I want to encourage people to eat it hot straight off the grill,” he says. “Some of the best steaks I’ve ever had have been straight off the grill, seasoned well and still hot.”

It wouldn’t be the Emerald City without a technicolour moment. Alderdice brings this to life with a dish called “rainbow trout” he created at Tarrawarra that makes a reappearance here. Trout is topped with stripes of finger lime, salmon roe, saffron and dashi pearls, chives, blue scampi caviar and Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz gin-infused roe.

For dessert, Alderdice is resurrecting another old favourite originally created for Bar Liberty: roasted jasmine rice cream with koji and macadamia.

“It’s the only dessert I’ve put on that people have reordered after they’ve finished it,” he says.

Diners can opt in to one of three drink pairings – non-alcoholic, whisky or a dealer’s choice of wine, whisky and cocktails created especially for the restaurant. They’re also welcome to grab a drink at Cavanagh’s before or after their meal, where Alderdice will be serving charcuterie boards and pies, often designed to suit Cavanagh’s extensive whisky range.

There’ll be renditions like Guinness and beef shin pies to suit the Irish varieties, buffalo chicken pies smothered with ranch and served with pickled celery for the American whiskies, and kangaroo tail pies for the Australian ones.

Emerald City
207 Maroondah Highway, Healesville
0430 385 008

Hours:
Wed to Fri 6pm; 8.15pm (two sittings)
Sat & Sun 1pm; 6pm; 8.15pm (three sittings)

emeraldcityhealesville.com
@emeraldcity.healesville